When Sleeping Beauty Woke Up
by Red Witch
Summary: Eliza contemplates on the changes in her life since her capture and rescue.


**The disclaimer telling all of you that I don't own any Galaxy Rangers characters has taken a nap. Just a fic I thought I'd do from Eliza's point of view after she woke up. You know a few possible thoughts that ran through my mind. **

**When Sleeping Beauty Woke Up**

When I married Zachery I thought my life had become a fairy tale. Little did I know how much of one it would become.

My life turned into the story of Sleeping Beauty. My soul was stolen by a wicked queen and I was placed in an icy coffin where I lay for nearly three years.

During that time I missed my children growing up. I missed my babies become teenagers. Okay Zach Jr. was already a teenager but I missed his first date and other moments of his life.

My children not only grew taller, but they seem much more confident and self assured. Then again zipping around the universe dealing with criminals would do that to a person.

It's like I'm learning who my children are all over again.

And Zachery. He's still afraid of his own bionics, especially around me. The first night we made love after our ordeal it was like he was a virgin all over again. He was so afraid to hurt me or do anything wrong.

And he's aged, not as much on the outside but on the inside. Those two and a half years were more like two and a half decades to him. I can see it in his eyes.

He's also nervous about leaving me alone for even more than a few minutes. All that time apart has really eroded his confidence and self esteem.

He still blames himself for what happened no matter how many times I have tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault. I don't blame him for the psychotic lunatic queen that stole my soul and my life!

I also sort of blame that stupid Captain Kidd for getting me into that mess in the first place, but that's another story.

There's a rage inside my husband I have never seen before. A hatred and yearning for revenge that worries me. He wants vengeance against the Queen and I'm afraid he might do something reckless to get it.

What's even scarier is that I feel that same rage inside me.

I want her to suffer for what she's done. Not just for me, for what she did to my husband, my children…To all the other innocent people she's killed and tortured for her own sadistic amusement.

Not that I have much else to do but to think about that these days.

I contacted my boss, Dr. Mason. My job was a researcher into astrophysics and electronic applications at Huntington Laboratories as well as a part time liaison work at Longshot. Needless to say he informed me that six months into my two and a half year stint in the Cryocrypt they made my temporary substitute into a permanent position.

In other words I was out of a job.

And I don't think there are too many positions out there for former slaver lords.

In a way I was fine with that. After spending so much time away from my children I wanted to be with them as much as possible. I decided to wait a few months before actively pursing another job search.

But part of me felt so useless.

Also during that time my husband found a new family. His new team of Galaxy Rangers.

You would think I'd feel out of place even more but…I don't.

The odd thing is that is the one aspect of my husband's new life that I feel the most comfortable with. I feel more at home with these three strangers than I do with people I've known for years.

It's probably due to Niko's psychic powers. Somehow the Rangers all developed a low level psychic link due to all the times they linked with each other's minds using their Series Five Implants. And for some reason…Somehow during the final battle with the queen I was able to link with my husband and ergo the rest of the team as well.

I already see Niko like a sister. She is strong yet gentle. She was kind enough to look after my daughter when she needed a mother the most. I don't envy her closeness with my husband, for many times it was her counsel that kept him from going off the deep end. They have a strong friendship and it's strong enough for me to be a part of.

We can talk to each other about Zachery and my children. I guess it is also because she is the only female on the team. She probably hasn't had that many female friends to talk to. Not that I have a lot these days.

Seems like a lot of my friends drifted apart when I was put in stasis. Of course a lot of them didn't know at first about my situation. Seems the military tried to keep it under wraps until it got exposed on galactic television. And then my children got exposed to that media circus.

And after I awoke it wasn't long before the media trotted our family problems right out in front of the universe again. I am very glad that Zachery broke that one camera with his bionic arm. That thing can be very helpful at times.

Didn't put much of a stop to the media. They compared me to an intergalactic version of Sleeping Beauty. I guess I am a lot like her.

But then again Sleeping Beauty didn't have nightmares about what happened during the time she slept.

What was the worst thing that happened to her? A simple prick of the finger and boom! A dreamless sleep! She probably didn't even know what hit her.

At night I can still hear my victim's screams.

I still have memories of me forcing victims into the chamber which drained their souls. Pulling down the levers and watching without emotion as their screams echoes through the castle. Collecting their lifeless bodies and storing them in the psychocrypt. Watching victims of torture being torn to pieces and…

No…I don't want to **think** about the horrible things that witch forced me to experience.

I hate her so much…

I never thought I could feel hate like this.

Everything I thought I was…The person I thought I was doesn't exist anymore.

She's been replaced by an outer space Sleeping Beauty with angst problems.

When Sleeping Beauty woke up a hundred years later she was also a woman out of her own time. Granted she had an entire castle filled with people who were going through the exact same thing but still I can't help but notice the similarities.

Maybe it's not a hundred years but two and a half years is still a pretty long time to be separated from the people you love.

Not to mention the entire planet and the human race.

No one ever really went into how Sleeping Beauty had to deal with all the changes that went on while she slept. They just say she got married to a handsome prince and la de dah they all lived Happily Ever After.

But this isn't a fairy tale.

This is real life.

I have to make my own Happily Ever After.

Fortunately for me, I've still got my prince.


End file.
